This is not my website. That would be www.lovelake.org. This was about art and artists, writings, interviews, audio, video etc. during a certain era of art blogging. Now it is just suspended in the occasional image.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

About five years ago galleryHomeland produced a show along the Esplanade called “Scratching the Surface.” I never found most of the work, but Richard Schemmerer intercepted. We decided a drink might be better, eventually finding ourselves seated at clarklewis.

Lost art aside, everything I saw that evening was gorgeous. It was an Aha moment for me, when the inner southeast grabbed my imagination. Perhaps it was because I was a brand new driver. Just getting across the river by myself, (but not on foot, which I’ve done plenty of times), was miraculous. But that view from the Esplanade, framed by our notoriously pink sky, told me why so many come to P-town and think it is beautiful.

Sure, I've dined at Montage back in the early 90s when I would visit from NYC. But I was a New Yorker then, used to groovy industrial diners like Florent (which I miss like crazy). Now I have lived in Portland longer than I did New York and I’ve been thinking for some time how delicious a space, any kind of space, in the inner southeast would be. After all, I’ve got a Monday Night bar and a radio show in these parts.

It's the raucous activity I find most encouraging, all those workers of the world who really don't have much to do with art. In a town with so many not working - sorry to have to observe this! – the industry and noise of the area is like a balm.

The Godfather Ben Pink (of Launchpad) waved his wand and connected me to the Right People, who shall remain nameless. The colors are extremes of hot and cold, steel and wood. My new studio is very close to the big air with a big view, yet enclosed, kind of hidden. I go up and down rather steep stairs, which is perfect, as the significant repeat dream of my entire lifetime, from early childhood on, features a navigation of extreme stairs. It’s what must be.

Monday, October 25, 2010

I am working a lot, have news about a studio too (more later).And I am also back at KBOO.We'll help celebrate the upcoming Day of the Dead by having Allan Oliver on Art Focus. He owns and curates Onda Gallery in the Alberta Arts District, a gallery which specializes in art from Latin America. Check out the exhibition this coming Last Thursday.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I work hard at my job yet wonder what tomorrow will bring. My house is great too but nothing I can count on forever. This all feels rather insecure for my time of life, but no doubt I’m not alone. The thing that feels the most secure is the fact of art in my life, which blows my mind.

Earlier I mentioned an artists-night-out every Monday. Lately we’ve been meeting at the Basement Pub. The subject of The Studio came up as I am rather tentatively looking for one. As you can imagine, it’s not just a room for many of us. It’s not just a place to work. The very words generate all kinds of associations and attachments. Having said this, that’s all it has ever really been for me.

Well, does your studio define you as an artist? I used to get the “Where is your studio?” question all the time in New York. For years I didn’t get just what this meant - and it was of course a test I failed, as I lived and worked in Midtown, a supposed no man’s land for artists. But I made a lot of work in Midtown- admittedly some never shown, but the work I made in that flat is directly related to what I am doing now.

But the where, what and how of The Studio defines many in the art game and it is, as much as anything, a measure of their stature. It tells the world that they are serious, committed. That’s what they think anyway.

Some have said “Eva, you can’t paint in a basement” but newsflash: I’ve been doing it for seven years now. Much of Vive Chrome and all of Take Off and The Richter Scale were made down there. Sorry, but the studio is not the place where I conceive miracles. It’s the place where I execute, where I work. The miracles and Romantic part happen in my head, not in a specific room with a view.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

I’ve been away from KBOO for almost two months. When people ask me what is going on and who all has been interviewed, I just say I am on hiatus. I needed that time and I may need even more.

Still, I am back for pledge drive this week - and the October show at Blackfish of Michael Knutson. What a great and easy way to return! My own enthusiasm for his remarkable paintings is evident in this video we made together a couple of years ago. In the video, he makes references to Albers, Held and Monet as he explains his process and the results. Maybe that sounds kind of dry and it isn't - he's got a sense of humor too. His new show opens this coming First Thursday.